Can I just say that as the daughter of a deadbeat dad, it makes me incredibly happy to see a bunch of dads bragging about the cuteness of their kids?

Well as the son of a deadbeat dad (and the son of an awesome stepdad), let me say thanks it's fun to share her with all of you.

Eating dinner last night, I made pancakes and smokies. Molly, the little pancake monster, had one and a half pancakes, a quarter of a banana, and two smokies! There wasn't one piece of food left on her tray or on her seat (where a lot of food ends up, depending on what's for dinner). She signed "finished", Rae offered her some more milk from her sippy cup, and she signed "finished" again and "up", and off she went to play by the front door (she loves watching the kids play outside).

So, I finished my dinner, scooped her up and took her outside to walk around the yard. She "ah ah ah's" at the kids shooting baskets down the street and they hear her and shout back "Hi Molly!" A few second later here come a gaggle of girls to coo and talk with Molly, who just watches them back and beams, showing off her dimple. After a time they went back to shooting hoops and she hollars after them "bye bye". It was soooo adorable! I can't wait for the weather to be nice enough all the time to be outside.

Question to you parent-folk.

How often were you in contact with kids before you decided you were ready to have them or raise them?

I mean, I teach kids, but I'm not around them much...most of my friends don't have kids, and the ones that do are never around.

I guess I'm asking, how do you know how to relate to your kids without having some social exposure to them as adults?

I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to reply over in the Parenting FAQ thread, just to keep a sprawling discussion from errupting on this one.

quote:

Originally posted by JP:
We're now working on "thank you" which she finds just a hoot to watch us do (finger tips to the chin, hand drawn away and down).

You know, until I read this, I had been reading "sing" instead of "sign", then I recognised the sign for "thank you"! I'm sorry if I've missed something you've posted before, but may I ask, is Molly deaf, or are (any of )you? I'm just curious, I don't want to be offensive.
[I have long wanted to learn sign language and become a sign language interpreter and last month there was a conference at my uni about interpreting in the public services and there were SL interpreters and deaf people in the audience and giving talks. It was so interesting and so cool and I learned so much I kept bouncing with excitement in my seat!]

heya

i'm sure JP won't mind if I answer this for him.

nobody's deaf, but at 10 months molly can't talk yet, so they're using baby sign for a few of the basics (not as a replacement for talking), as she can communitate what she wants without the frustration of not being able to speak - so instead of screaming, she can just sign 'milk' or 'more' or 'finished' and they know what she wants.

Wow, I'd never heard of anybody doing that! That's very cool. isn't it wonderful, she can't pseak yet, but she know a language already! *high-fives Molly*

And she can hi-five too! *asks Molly to give Clover a high-five, which she does placing her tiny hand up against Clovers, then giggles all bashful* (that's what she does when you ask her to give you high-five)

Clover, the whole baby sign language thing has been around for a while. I searched out some basic info on the 'net, but then just up and bought a book that looked good, to have as a reference for the vocabulary. As Smaug said, she's able to communicate without being able to speak the words yet, and for things like "more" and "milk/drink" and "up" and "finished" it's very handy. It takes patience and lots of repitition, but she's catching on quick.

quote:

Originally posted by Smaug:
<snip>
nobody's deaf, but at 10 months molly can't talk yet<snip>

And just so y'all know (I can hardly believe this myself) the li'l button is gonna be a year old in a few weeks! A whole year! *nearly faints*

Cthulhu makes them grow fast *sniff*

quote:

Originally posted by JP:
And she can hi-five too!

*high-fives MOlly and giggles too*

My little cousin-goddauhter can high-five too (I like to think I taught her, but probably she learned it somewhere elsE).
She also kisses: she used to do the whole kiss-with-chuick-sound, but now she's found out it's way easier to just brush her lips against your cheek and say "mmuah". so then you have a sticky, wet cheeck and now real kiss, but it's very cute

Molly hasn't quite grasped kisses yet. Usually you just get an open mouth, or you might get licked. She almost *almost!* puckered this weekend, but then I got licked. She's learning how to blow kisses, and she's got the mmmwaa sound and the hand motion, but we don't think she quite knows what she's doing (with the kisses and all).

This weekend we had another first, we think. She says "kih kih" for kitty, and has called all the nieghborhood dogs kitty for some time. We always say, "no, that's a doggy". Well, this weekend while we were playing out in the front yard she said "gy gy" when she saw the doggies! So, we think she's learned a new word.

I live across the street from a lake. This weekend I let my three dogs outside to our fenced back yard and they immediately started barking. I noticed our neighbors were in their backyard also, but the dogs weren't barking at them. I poked my head outside and saw a hot air balloon had touched down in the lake and was taking off again. Right across the street from my house. The dogs thought we were being attacked. This monster was approaching and floating above our house. Everytime they would fire the burner the dogs would jump and run behind me, then start to bark again. My boy was being the man of the house and had all of the hair on his back standing straight up to look bigger. I had to laugh, especially when the balloonists waved at us from their basket. Silly puppies protecting the house and being guard dogs.

My baby sister Abbie has learned to say 'bye-bye'.

If you say it to her and wave, she'll bring both arms up, flap them and say 'buh buh'

It's so cute

quote:

Originally posted by JP:
Molly hasn't quite grasped kisses yet. Usually you just get an open mouth, or you might get licked. She almost *almost!* puckered this weekend, but then I got licked. She's learning how to blow kisses, and she's got the mmmwaa sound and the hand motion, but we don't think she quite knows what she's doing (with the kisses and all).

This weekend we had another first, we think. She says "kih kih" for kitty, and has called all the nieghborhood dogs kitty for some time. We always say, "no, that's a doggy". Well, this weekend while we were playing out in the front yard she said "gy gy" when she saw the doggies! So, we think she's learned a new word.

one of my nephew's very first words was "doggy," and he called everything and everyone "doggy" for a long time. It was quite amusing for a while.

i want kids. after reading all this, i get so excited at the thought of it.

Well, maybe this will change your mind. A rather funny story, if you like ones that involve vomit. I e-mailed this to a friend yesterday and thought I'd share:

Graeme had a bad bottle of milk on Friday and threw up before I could make it to the bathroom. Most of it landed in my hair and down the back of my shirt, though he managed to hit his blanket, sleeper and favourite stuffed animal (of the moment) on the way.

Christy and I stripped him down, I put on a new shirt and we set about figuring out if Graeme was all right to go down to sleep. Apart from some stomach cramps, he seemed all right, so I carted him upstairs, laid him down in the bed and sat down in the rocking chair, which is when I discovered another spot the vomit had ended up, namely in my underwear. So, I stripped off my now-dampened jeans and underwear and found myself singing songs to my ailing son while I stood naked in the middle of his rather chilly room wiping his vomit off my ass with a wet wipe.

Eventually, Graeme went to sleep. Meanwhile, Christy was downstairs saying goodbye to the five people we had over for dinner that night, all of whom had borne witness to the affair.

Graeme was up a few times in the night, and was fairly cranky on Saturday, having periodic stomach cramps and bits of diarrhea. I had brought a small container of that milk to cook my pasta in on Friday, so he was joined in his gastrointestinal escapades by his father.

By Sunday night, he seemed cleared out and this morning I woke to hear him in his bed, happily narrating a story involving his stuffed cat (since washed and disinfected) and his dinosaur (a stegosaurus named "Bony" after a line in Dinosaurumpus, his very favourite book) apparently arguing over who was going to get to eat the dragon. No stuffed dragon was in evidence, but we DID have a D & D session on Friday before the vomitorium opened up.

You know you're a parent when even vomit stories make you smile Poor guy (and poor Dad!). Glad he was feeling better by the end of the weekend. And maybe there's a reason you didn't see the dragon, as it was already eaten? Perhaps?

We think Molly has blowing kisses and signing "thank you" confused. Last night I was feeding her dinner (yogurt and black beans and milk). She would sign "more" and I would feed her more yogurt then she would blow me a kiss, mmmwa and hand gesture and everything. I would say 'thank you for the kisses' and sign 'thank you' and she would laugh and blow me another kiss. This went on for most of dinner, every time she would ask for more yogurt and I would give her some.

Hadn't considered that possibility, JP. He did inform me during the D & D session that his action in his Initiative was to eat the dragon.

DiD.... still not enough to put me off...